President Donald Trump is bringing his midterm rescue mission to Nebraska today.
The president rallies tonight at the Pinnacle Bank Expo Center in Grand Island — doors at 2:30 p.m. CT, program at 4:30, remarks expected around 6 p.m. It's part of what Trump calls a 32-day blitz of rallies ahead of November 3 that has already run through Oklahoma and Alabama, with a San Antonio stop coming Wednesday.
Trump is campaigning for Sen. Pete Ricketts, who is running for his first full six-year term against independent Dan Osborn — a race nobody expected to be competitive that national Democrats have now poured into. Ricketts, a former governor, was appointed to fill Ben Sasse's seat in 2023 and won the seat outright in 2024 to finish the term. The president is also stumping for Gov. Jim Pillen, who is seeking a second term against former state Sen. Lynne Walz, a Democrat.
“The president's coming to Nebraska to help me campaign, so I can get reelected,” Ricketts told the Associated Press last week.
But the trip lands with the administration's own policy under fire from its allies. The plan to allow more foreign beef imports — which Trump wants in order to lower beef prices for consumers — has enraged Nebraska ranchers, who say it would undercut them. Ricketts himself broke with the White House on it, telling the AP: “The plan to import low-quality foreign beef is not helping Nebraska ranchers. I would advise the White House to change that policy and look for longer-term things that will help us build the size of the herd and ultimately bring the price of beef down for consumers.”
The Democrats are showing up too. Hall County Democrats are staging a “Rally for Democracy” counter-protest outside the venue from 2:30 to 6 p.m., arguing working families, farmers, and veterans see “failed policies and broken promises” — pointing to cattle-industry pain, fertilizer and tariff costs, and diesel prices.
The fair frame: this is the administration's economic pitch meeting its toughest audience. Nebraska is farm country, and Trump's team says the import plan protects consumers at the grocery store. Ranchers say it sacrifices them to do it. Tonight's rally puts the pitch directly to the people living the policy — and the crowd's response is the verdict.